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The Simplicity of Nichiren The Simplicity of Nichiren J ohn T. Brinkman t the very time that an intense focus on interior response added a new dimension to the traditional search for rebirth in the Pure Land and that aA concentration on inner processes offered a new development in Zen dis­ cipline, a revival of Hokke Buddhism emerged that would wed a heretofore unknown intensity of faith with the external, social action of man. This revi­ sion of Tendai Buddhism appealed less to innovation than to a return to the true doctrine of the Lotus. The age old Buddhist theme that linked protection of the realm with faith in the Lotus sutra appeared in the person of Nichiren (1222-1282). The cultivation of practice in a concentrated effort of body-mind that is zazen was more than matched in Nichiren’s “Body-sutra,” i.e., shindoku,' and its union of faith and action. Pure Land faith explicated in the single focus of the nembutsu invocation found a counterpart in a faith centered on the one doctrine of the Lotus. The intensity of faith absorbed by the invo­ cation in praise of Amida Buddha, “ Namu-amida-butsu” found resonance in Nichiren’s intonation and homage of the daimoku, the title of the Lotus sutra, ‘ ‘ Namu-myO-hO-ren-ge-kyd.992 Nichiren presented a doctrine powerful enough to save a people who suffered the trial of institutional collapse and the torment of natural disasters. He confronted the lack of true faith that rendered a people fragile within and vulnerable from without with the one faith he judged restorative of national purpose. The threat of Mongol invasion prepared the context within which his message would have special emphasis and efficacy. The theme of the coming in­ vasion was a conscious reference. Paul D. Jaffe notes that Nichiren considered such an invasion the suffering of divine punishment for a nation inattentive to his prophetic voice. It is in this context that Jaffe notes that the term: “ to suffer,” kOmuru was uniquely written by Nichiren with the first of the two 1 Nakamura, BukkyOgo daijiten, 1:773. 2 Nakamura, BukkyOgo daijiten, 2:935. 248 BRINKMAN: THE SIMPLICITY OF NICHIREN characters that form the word, Mongol, in his admonition to this faithless na­ tion.3 Yet the effort of Nichiren, if reduced to an evocation of the energies of a peo­ ple for a particular national purpose, i.e., nationalism, would have been, even in his own time, an ambiguous achievement at best.4 5In fact, the faith he de­ fined offered a compelling sense of credence and creativity that has endured through the centuries.3 NICHIREN (1222-1282) Like the teachings of other key religious figures of the age, Nichiren’s specific Buddhist formulation was the result of a long period of personal pursuit. A formative period spans his 1233 entry to Kiyosumi monastery at the age of eleven to the day he proclaimed his religious certitude on May 17, 1253. Masa- haru Anesaki notes the range of Nichiren’s studies and the intensity of his in­ sight in a moment of recorded self-reflection. “ I have gone to many centers of the religion,” he says in reminis­ cence, “ during those twenty years, in the quest of Buddhist truths. The final conclusion 1 arrived at was that the truth of Buddhism must be one in essence. Many people lose themselves in the labyrinth of learning and studies, through thinking that every one of the diverse branches might help to the attainment of Buddhist ideals.” 6 3 Paul D. Jaffe, “Rising from the Lotus: Two Bodhisattvas from the Lotus Sutra as a Psychodynamic Paradigm for Nichiren,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 13 (March 1986): 92. 4 Shinohara Kdichi cogently presents evidence that Nichiren’s faith did not hinge on influencing contemporary politics but that the influence of the political order did deepen Nichiren’s views on the meaning o f salvation. He notes that Nichiren’s own life­ time experience and sequence of writing offer a shift of emphasis from an effort to influence national purpose to the effort to define a deeper sense of the salvific inspired by the experience of persecution. See Shinohara Kdichi, “ Religion and Political Order in Nichiren’s Buddhism” in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 8 (September- December 1981): 225-234. 5 Tamura Yoshird in “ Ideas of the Lotus Sutra” notes that faith in the Nichiren sect and veneration of the Lotus Sutra were definable characteristics of the townsman class of the Momoyama and Edo periods with particular reference to the autonomous guilds of Kyoto. He makes specific references to those who were prominent in the arts and in letters up to the end of the Edo period as representative of a “ Lotus machishQ cul­ ture.” (George J. Tanabe, Jr. and Willa Jane Tanabe, eds., The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture [Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 19891, PP« 50-51.) 6 Masaharu Anesaki, Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet (Cambridge: Harvard Univer­ sity Press, 1916; reprint ed., Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1966), p. 14. 249 THE EASTERN BUDDHIST XXVIII, 2 It is Nichiren’s essential sense of oneness that sets him apart from other tra­ ditions. His conviction that Sakyamuni preached the law according to a se­ quence which distinguished the provisional doctrines from the final revelation of the Lotus sutra colored his works with a critical cast and a unique sense of polemic. Although Amidism took priority as a target, Zen, Shin gon, and Ritsu in that order, also came under his critical pen.7 His knowledge of these sects was not remote. Their doctrines were among those studied during his per­ sonal odyssey and scholastic journey. Jacqueline Stone notes Nichiren’s com­ prehensive condemnation. Nichiren’s rejection of the other Buddhist schools was summed up by his later followers in the form of the so-called four declarations (shika kakugen a ), drawn from various passages in his work: “ Nembutsu leads to Avici Hell, Zen is a devil, Shingon will destroy the nation, and Ritsu is a traitor.” 8 The Pure Land tradition was most irksome, for it found its matrix in the very tradition which if viewed faithfully would have all that was necessary for universal salvation. Genshin’s addition of rebirth to the attainment of enlight­ enment, HOnen’s mode of nembutsu and Shinran’s simple faith could only be an anathema to Nichiren. Hence, criticism of Pure Land was itself a clear state­ ment of Nichiren’s doctrine. Opposition to the JOdo sect was an apologia for true Lotus belief. His points of contrast were central and his position unyield­ ing. But then came HOnen, and his SenchakushQ forgot Sakya, the Lord of the Law, and started to venerate only the Buddha of the Western Land. Rejecting the legacy of DengyO Daishi, he put aside the 7 “ When he (Nichiren) speaks o f certain reputable figures such as Shan-tao (ZendO) or HOnen, the epithets ‘stupid/ ‘liar/ ‘criminal’ often appear in his brush stroke. He wrote on the eleventh of October, 1268 to RyOkan, the superior of Gokurakuji, one of the most respected and influential monks of his time, that he was a ‘bandit pretending to possess the three sciences' and ‘possessing the blindness of the false sages’ and that he was a ‘traitor to his country/ His horror of the diverse Buddhist sects exploded in the letters which he wrote on the same date to DOryii, superior o f Kenchdji at Kamakura: ‘The nembutsu is an act o f unending hell; Zen is the doings of the demons, Shingon is an evil doctrine which destroys the country, and Ritsu is a historical lie of traitors/ etc.” (G. Renondeau, La Doctrine de Nichiren, [Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1953], p. 6.) 8 Jacqueline Stone, “ Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus: Nichirenist Exclusivism in Historical Perspective,” Japanese Journal o f Religious Studies 21 (June-September 1994): 223. 250 BRINKMAN: THE SIMPLICITY OF NICHIREN Tathagata of the East and gave himself exclusively to the four volumes of the three sutras of the Pure Land and abandoned the other wonderful scriptures taught by our first master during the five periods.9 1011 Pure Land belief was distortive of the unique saving role of Sakyamuni. In its misplaced faith, it is a counterfeit credence. Nichiren dismisses all who prac­ tice the nembutsu to the abyss of Mukenjigoku™ with the brief epithet: “ Nem- butsumuken . .” H To the nethermost hell used by Genshin to dissuade men from their evil ways and to inspire them toward faith in rebirth, Nichiren con­ signs all J Odo believers. Nichiren’s polemic posture in general and in specific reference to Pure Land, is based on his conviction that the truth of Buddhism must be one in essence. He presents unequivocally the one final truth of Buddhism. There is but one sutra that proclaims the unique role of the one Buddha capable of saving mankind in these final times. The revealed identity of Sakyamuni Buddha in the Lotus sutra implies a basic identity in man’s faith response. “ The perfec­ tion of truth is in the Buddha’s soul and the same perfection in our soul are one, and it is inherent in us and to be realized by ourselves.” 12 13 The more Nichiren focused on the interiority of things, the more powerfully was the historical dimension of things and the manifestation of the Buddha na­ ture actively one in the act of faith. This identity inspired his sense of realiza­ tion. He would speak of a “body-sutra,” shindoku.™ This reading of the Scripture by the “ bodily life” 14 was an accordance of revealed truth and phenomenal existence.
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